Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Not much wi-fi atm as am right down at the furthest end of the garden in new little bench area. Thanks for all your comments - I'll reply properly tomorrow, as I'm.not sure if this will actually post.
Had intended to do a few minor tasks then have a day of leisure because I dislike the heat, but it didn't turn out like that. There was a whole trugful of garden pickings - blackberries, courgettes, french beans, a cucumber, chillies & a pepper, as well as a bundle of rhubarb. By the time I'd dealt with all that, including blanching & freezing 2 bags of beans, cooking the rhubarb, etc, I thought I might as well bake bread rolls & do next week's meal plans as well. Then I got onto one of the tasks I had actually intended to do this afternoon, which was to make a batch of tortilla wraps. 
Mr F has overtaken me in our 5-day steps challenge, but I've just got mine up a bit more by trotting to & fro bailing bathwater over our flower beds. I know he has a fair bit of work-based driving to do tomorrow morning then is WFH but has a meeting, so I reckon I can probably catch up. It's free fitness, anyway....just wish I hadn't agreed to the challenge on such a hot week. 
Well I'm going to do a couple more surreptitious laps then read a couple of chapters of my book.
Hope this will post....signal not always the best for data etc, this far from the house.
F x

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments & contributions, which as usual, I enjoyed reading & kept finding myself nodding in agreement.
@Deni_debt-free_dreamer - Tomato & ale chutney is a very easy recipe - it needs 2.5kg of tomatoes so is good for dealing with a glut. As chutney lasts a good year (I've kept it longer if it's looked ok), it is a good pantry filler & useful for gifts, for which I like to tart the jars up with pretty lid-covers & raffia or ribbon. Great use of your PA survey earnings, btw.

@QueenJess - Yes, I had read something similar. Plenty of people are sufficiently intelligent to realise that tax cuts mean cuts in public services, which are already on their knees having already suffered years of Tory government austerity measures.

@marionmgcars - I love home grown tomatoes. You can't beat the flavour of them when they've been sun-ripened on the plant. The ones in the shops in winter are virtually flavourless.

@amber03 - No, I agree it doesn't look good for winter. I think we will all be putting our MSE skills fully into action to try & weather the storm as best we can. I don't think either of the leadership rivals grasp that the massive energy price rises are not only going to hit the poorest families (who often don't vote so can often be brushed aside) but will affect the budgets of middle class households too. That means less disposable income to spend in local shops & businesses, on the high street & online generally. Restauranteurs & takeaway owners are apparently already noticing a difference to their takings. It won't be long before hair & beauty businesses start seeing people go an extra fortnight or month between appointments, etc, as everyone cuts back. They are so busy trying to outdo each other with who can cut taxes the most that they are missing the most enormous crisis right under their noses. Hopefully it will be the undoing of the lot of them, I just wish ordinary people didn't have to suffer.

@Sun_Addict - I don't mind walking but only short distances. 2 - 3 miles is about my limit. I am physically capable of walking further than that, but not without moaning. I did once do a 5-mile walk around a nice big park in the north of the county but I was moany by the end & didn't enjoy it, even in nice scenery, after about 3 miles or so. I'm generally quite active though, especially with all the gardening that I do, & I do want to resume cycling when the weather is cooler.

@CRANKY40 - Yes, food price rises are indeed scary. Also, we are noticing a fair amount of gaps on the shelves  - the gaps aren't consistently the same product categories, but we are seeing enough of this to assume that there are supply-chain issues somewhere along the line.

@ladyholly - We're not particularly chilly mortals but like everyone else, we do feel the cold in winter. It's going to be difficult for people like Mr LH who feel the cold particularly badly. I have a friend like that - he can be invited to ours for dinner in June & sit at the dining table in his coat.

@milann - You're welcome! You have some sticking power to work your way through all of my rambles! If anyone had told me 20 years or so ago that I would EVER be inspiring anybody with money saving activity, I'd have dissolved into a heap on the floor laughing. If I'd had a £ for every time my Mum told me 'You can't spend what you haven't got', that in itself would probably have paid off a good proportion of my 24-year old overdraft! 

F x

foxgloves

And hello to everyone & now for today's post:
Not much to report today. It's so hot, I must remember to keep drinking extra water.
So far, I've baked a sourdough loaf (have managed to keep my sourdough culture going for 5 years & 1 month!), done garden pickings - a couple of small aubergines & more blackberries to add to my freezer container) & potted on the autumn bedding which I grew from out-of-date seeds found in Mum's understairs cupboard when we cleared out our old family home. I'm thinking that this will reduce similar stuff bought from garden centre by about 4 or 5 trays.
Now, on the subject of the Steps Contest to which Mr F challenged me for Mon-Fri this week.......by bedtime yesterday, he'd pulled way out ahead by nearly 3k steps, & I assumed that with the temperatures being so high, that's it, he would defo stay in the lead, but not so m'dears. It seems that there's both life & a bit of craftiness in the old crock yet! I knew that this morning he'd got to drive to a nearby small town to drop off a load of equipment for electrical testing. I know where the car park is (given that he can't park on the outskirts to maximise steps because of having to carry a couple of huge lighting rigs) & that it wouldn't involved much walking. So after he'd set off, I went for a quick crafty walk & then got on with my garden jobs, which have involved doing several lengths of the garden. He's wfh this afternoon & as he has what is expected to be a lengthy zoom meeting, he isn't going to be walking anywhere. I've just checked the figures & I have made up the gap & am now only 233 steps behind him. So I am off to carry on with little garden jobs (nothing too taxing) but will make sure I take the opportunity to do a couple of lengths of the garden after each task. Even better, he's got the Man-cave curtains closed to keep the sun out, so he won't be able to see what I'm doing. Yes, your frugal friend is back in the game!!
I'll just pour another glass of water & get going,
From Mrs Steps of Stepville xx

Cheery_Daff

Ha, I am loving your steps challenge with Mr F! 😂😂 Also I'm quite jealous - my watch ran out of battery yesterday and I can't find the charger anywhere, which means none of my steps are counting, aarrgghh!! 😮😮 I've ordered a new one which will be here tomorrow, but how many steps am I missing?!

amber03

Love sourdough bread, toasted with butter. We have an independent bakery near us who bake it, treated myself the other week to a loaf, was £1.50 dearer than the SM. Don’t mind paying that price as a treat but will stick to the SM until this crisis is over.x

Sun_Addict

Loving your very competitive steps challenge with Mr F 🤣🤣 

foxgloves

I love it too, @amber03, & it is supposed to be more digestible, maybe because of the fermentation process & good effects on beneficial gut bacteria. It is a very simple food - just flour, water, a little salt & a portion of sourdough culture, which is itself just flour & water. It takes a bit more time - planning though, which I expect is why it costs more than standard bread.
F 

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict & @Cheery_Daff, Thanks for the encouragement re steps challenge. He is a couple of hundred steps ahead of me again atm but I have been quite crafty today. It was my day to have the car so I'd planned to park up in town early, get my hair trimmed, go for a coffee at a cafe with a nice old shady courtyard, do a bit of me-shopping then go home before it gets too hot. Then I realised Mr F was going over to the south of the county for a training practical. He was perfectly happy to go on the bus, but it occurred to me that while the bus stop in our village is only on the next street, there's quite a walk involved at the other end to get to the work venue. 
So I suggested in a benevolent manner that if he dropped me off in town early & swung by to pick me up on his way back, there was no reason he couldn't take the car. He's only got a half-day so this works for both of us......but it also works for my steps!! He'll win this challenge, he always does, but I'm not going down without a fight!
I'm just enjoying my skinny cappucino, then I'm going to have a mozy round the shops & make sure I ask him to pick me up from somewhere on the edge of town so I can take a circular walk (as much of it in the shade as poss) to get there. 
He's been working hard recently esp with all the staff shortages so I may suggest he relaxes with a nice long film this afternoon.
F x

Cheery_Daff

Ha, you are so sneaky! 😂😂 I love it 😂😂 Has he got wise to your sneaky tricks yet??

foxgloves

I don't know, @Cheery_Daff, but I don't think he has any intention of spending his afternoon off watching a film, as he's just announced he intends to vacuum the entire house. Vacuuming adds lots of steps, esp with Mum's ancient machine as it needs a lot of effort on our upstairs carpets, so I need to re-think my afternoon activities. I think my strategy will be mopping, shady hoeing & sweeping the back courtyard, followed by garden pickings and I'll see how our totals compare after that.
I must admit I even bought him a lovely big bath bomb this morning in the hope that it might make him fancy a long leisurely soak! If this works, I'll be on it like a bonnet with some surreptitious lengths of the garden. My overarching strategy is for him to think I'm no longer trying.
F x